The true Human Nature
by suiren - Mad Hatter
Summary: This is an alternate ending for the story. It starts from an actual moment and ends with the exact same phrase, but it is a completely different ending...more savage.
1. Chapter 1

None of the characters are mine and their talking expressions are also taken from the original text. The text in Italics is quoted from the text, and therefore not mine at all but helps to locate the reader in the story (I hope).

This is an alternate ending to the story which I wrote 3 years ago. I don't write much so I would really appreciate reviews to help me ameliorate my writing. Thank you

* * *

(Forget the idea that the island was in fire because I don't take it into account.) 

_He stumbled over a root and the cry that pursued him rose even higher. He saw a shelter burst in flames and the fire flapped at his right shoulder and there was the glitter of water. Then he was down, rolling over and over in the warm sand, crouching with arm to ward off, trying to cry to mercy. _He hit his head on a rock and lost consciousness which soon became sleep, recovering from last night's lack of it.

The hunters found Ralph and made a circle around him. They cried out their ululation code to say they'd found him, and Jack arrived, running, a couple of seconds later.

"Let's kill him!"

"No," Roger said, "Wait! He's unconscious right now so he won't feel anything. Let's bring him back to Castle Rock and wait for him to wake up."

Jack considered this option and agreed.

"Yeah! Let's bring him back. We'll do him properly when he wakes up!"

The boys took unconscious Ralph and carried him up to Castle Rock. There they dumped him in a corner of the cave and left Robert and Maurice to keep an eye on him while others prepared a new fire. As Roger watched the boys build up the fire, he had an illumination.

"Hey! We could burn him alive and then feast on him!"

"What!?" Jack answered, disgusted at the idea of eating a human being.

"Yeah! Like a pig!"

Everyone fell silent, waiting for the Chief to decide. Jack stared at Roger, his expression inscrutable under his painted mask, and then he smiled, a big smile of triumph. He had just found the most satisfying way to kill Ralph.

"Except we won't eat him. This is disgusting. We're not animals. But we'll burn him, oh yeah, we'll burn him."

Samneric looked at each other in horror. They felt sick and terrified at the idea of watching Ralph being burnt to death, and even worse, having to cooperate with the killers. If they refused to cooperate, what would Roger do to them? They preferred no to think of it, but started to feel pain just to imagine what would happen to them.

Jack was very excited.

"Let's build a big fire, real big!" He turned to the twins, "Samneric! Go get some wood!"


	2. Chapter 2

Okay. Here goes the last part.

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It was a sunny morning; Mummy and Daddy were somewhere else, the house and everything around silent. A pony's head was standing on a stick by the stone wall at the bottom of the garden, grinning. Suddenly it caught fire. The smoke, smelling of burnt wood, came to Ralph's nostrils, and he woke up, lying on a dirt floor, inside a cave. The smell of smoke was still present, but the other images of his dream had disappeared. There were two savages, their backs at him, spears in hand, looking outside at a big, big fire, big enough to be a signal fire. 

"Smoke," thought Ralph, "We need smoke."

He sat up and suddenly realized that he should be dead by now. His tummy rumbled, it had been a while since he'd eaten. The sound attracted the two guards' attention.

"He's awake!"

"Chief! Chief! He's awake, he woke up!"

Ralph thought he recognized them as being Robert and Maurice, but what difference did it make if he knew who they were. As far as he was concerned, these savages painted their selves in an attempt to hide, even lose, their identity.

"They're animals," Ralph thought, "They're not even humans anymore."

A red-haired, stripped savage, whom Ralph recognized as the Chief, came into the cave, followed by another savage whose eyes were lit by cruelty.

"Get up." ordered the savage with the red hair.

Ralph did not move. He looked from one savage to the other. Something was going on in their minds, that was obvious, but what could it be?

"I said get up!" repeated the red-haired savage.

The cruel-eyed savage poked Ralph with his spear and echoed the chief, "Get up!"

Ralph finally got up. His legs were weak and his hands were bound together with a piece of clothing that had probably belonged to one of the boys before he had turned into a savage. The fear he had felt while running away from the mob of savages was still there, but it was strongly accompanied by a feeling of hopelessness.

"Follow me." the chief said.

Ralph followed the red-haired savage out of the cave, himself being followed by the two guards and the savage with the cruel eyes. When they got out he saw that all, or at least most of the savages, had formed a circle around the fire, and they were all staring at him.

"Here's your fire," said the chief, "and soon you'll have the privilege to see it closer than anyone else has, except maybe for the kid with that mulberry mark on his face."

Ralph recoiled in a sudden moment of understanding, tripped over his own feet, and fell hard on the ground. He stared at Jack in horror and felt terribly sick at the triumphant look Jack gave back at him. Then he remembered; this wasn't Jack anymore, this was just a painted savage from which all human notions had disappeared.

A savage behind Ralph forced him back up and pushed him further toward the fire. Ralph looked around him for help from the other savages, but all he saw was a mixture of fear and pleasure in their eyes except for two identical savages that bore that identical, terrified look on their faces. Certainly no help would come from them.

"Tie his feet."

Immediately after the Chief had given the order, the cruel savage pushed Ralph back down, face on the earth, kneeling on his back, forcing him to stay still. Two savages came closer, bringing ripped shirts tied up together, forming what could be called a rope. Ralph struggled and kicked the earth as much as he could until the savage holding him down applied so much pressure on his back Ralph felt his spine would crack. Then he felt the bond of clothes being passed around his ankles, solidly binding them together.

"Roger, take his feet, I'll take his arms, and at three, we swing him into the fire," the Chief said excitedly to the savage with the cruel eyes.

Ralph felt his upper body being lifted from the ground, then his feet followed, and he cried out in desperation.

"Stop it! You can't do this! You can't, you can't! Stop it! Stop it!"

He struggled, trying to free himself from the savages' claws, and in a last desperate effort, his joint foot managed to hit hard into the savage's stomach, leaving _it_ breathless. Ralph started falling down and the Chief dropped the rest of him because of the sudden, unexpected weight that had appeared when _it_ had let go of his legs. The Roger-savage, which had recovered unbelievably quickly, was already on top of Ralph, hammering his face with its fists before any of the others could've registered what had happened. A loud cry of pain suddenly came out of Ralph's mouth, and a river of blood rushed from his nose. Someone, or maybe _something_, pushed the Roger-savage away from Ralph and cried out.

"Stop it! You're gonna kill him!"

"He kicked me!" said the angry savage.

"Yeah, I know," the Chief replied, "but this is not how we planned to kill him."

"I don't care what we planned; I just want to finish him now!"

"I'm Chief, I decide what we do."

"I got the idea! I can change it anytime I want!"

"No. Not if I don't agree."

"Sucks to your agreeing!"

"Don't you dare repeat that!"

The Roger-savage stepped over Ralph and repeated

"Sucks to your agreeing!"

The Chief blushed in anger and scowled at _its_ new, temporary adversary; opened _its_ mouth, but before _it_ could say anything, a fist came out of nowhere and hit _it_ squarely in the face. _It_ backed away in the impact and soon, all the other savages were watching, petrified and confused, Jack and Roger rolling together on the ground, hitting and kicking each other in fury. Ralph, blinded by his blood and tears, could only hear the sounds of the battle. After a while came the sound of wood tearing through flesh accompanied by a cry of pain. Jack fell to his knees, a spear sticking out of him on both sides, at about the level of his heart. The body completed its fall and Jack's body lay on the ground, showing no sign of life.

There was silence, and then all the savages looked at Roger, shocked and scared.

"Well, I killed the Chief so I'm Chief now." The new Chief's voice faltered. "I'm Chief," _it_ repeated with more confidence. "Now you have to obey me."

No cheers rose from the circle of savages, none of them moved. They just stared at Roger in shock, unable to do or say anything. Sam gathered all his courage, licked his lips, and took a step forward.

"No. We don't"

His voice was shaking. He tried his best to steady it and than said it again.

"No. We don't. We don't have to obey you. I chose to go back with Ralph."

Eric stepped beside Sam to show his support even though fear of Roger was greater than ever. Some other boys, still a bit resilient to go against orders, stepped beside Samneric. As more and more boys joined them, the twins gained more and more confidence and started feeling that they had the power to take their revenge. They would torture Roger just as he had tortured them. Ralph, feeling the tension rising, stood up as best as he could, wiped the blood out of his eyes with his bound hands and asked such a simple question that it left the other boys confused, leading them away from the idea of hurting Roger.

"Would someone please help me untie myself?"

The boys looked dumbly at Ralph and then Eric walked toward him.

"Yeah, sure. Sorry," he muttered shamefully.

Sam, who had also blushed in shame, went to help his brother, and totally unexpectedly they heard Maurice shouting excitedly.

"Ship! Ship! There's a ship coming toward the island! They must've seen our smoke! We're gonna get rescued!"

_The boys all turned toward the sea and then they saw it, a trim cruiser in the distance._

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Hope you enjoyed ;). I had a lot of fun writing it ...but I still want reviews to tell me how to make it better. :) 


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